If you’re underage, don’t plan on buying GTA: Helsinki City Stories anytime soon.
Last week the government of Finland made a change to its media classification system, the Act on Classification of Audiovisual Programs, to give the PEGI (Pan- European Ratings Information) rating system the force of law.
While video game rating previously came under the jurisdiction of the Finnish Board Of Film Classification - much like games in the U.K. are rated by the British Board Of Film Classification - the Finns will now use the PEGI ratings as its official guide, and will incorporate all previous laws - such as those making it illegal to sell 18+ games to minors.
A PEGI press release said:
This additional support given to PEGI by the Finnish Parliament sounds particularly propitious at a time when legitimate calls are made to improve the protection of minors from unsuitable content… (this step) provides further evidence of PEGI’s ability to articulate effectively with national legislations on a continuing basis.
Other changes made to Finnish video game laws include the abolition of the country’s existing 11+ and 15+ ratings, replaced with PEGI’s standard 12 and 16. However, it has not been mentioned how the new statute will affects games distributed online, which are not covered under its jurisdiction.
Via Game Politics